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Griffin: Blue Jays lose 8-5 to Tampa Bay Rays

ST. PETERSBURG, FLA.—The Jays should make a conscious effort to be extremely careful about what they say and how they act towards the game’s umpires. On Tuesday night in an 8-5 loss to the Rays at the Trop, Jays’ fiery third baseman Brett Lawrie, fresh off a four-game suspension was embroiled in yet another umpire controversy, albeit far less dramatic with no short-term repercussions.

The confrontation did not impact the game decision, but it may impact the team’s future unless the Jays rein in their combative emotions. Lawrie was stealing second in the eighth inning when Yan Gomes flied out to centre. Lawrie executed a popup slide, reaching his feet on the first base side of second base, but shuffling his feet around in a two-step looking to locate the baseball. He took a jab step towards third, then raced back to first. The Rays appealed at second and Lawrie was rung up as the back end of the double play for crossing the base and not re-tagging on his way back to first.

“What I saw was Brett’s popup slide straight into the bag,” Jays manager John Farrell said. “When he saw it was caught, he returned straight back to first base. The umpire’s interpretation was that his momentum continued to take him past second base towards third base. The second base umpire saw his momentum take him past the bag and he cut through the middle of the infield.”

Lawrie was standing on first when the out call was made. Lawrie’s reaction? He raced at a hard sprint straight at umpire Rob Drake at second base and got right in his face. Crew chief Joe West came over from third and Torey Lovullo and Farrell came to intervene on behalf of their combustible star.

“All I wanted to know was what was going on,” Lawrie said. “I didn’t know what happened. I didn’t go to third base. I slid in, popped up and went back. So, for me that was my whole question.”

What was Drake’s reaction? How did that go? What was the official response?

“Don’t argue with me,” Lawrie recalled the brief exchange. “I didn’t really get a chance to say anything. I just wanted to know what the play was. All I thought was he caught the ball, I went back and I was out, so I just wanted to know what happened. If I’m getting called out for something I just want to know what I’m getting called out for and if I don’t understand the reason then I feel like I have the right to ask why and I just didn’t get an answer tonight.”

The Jays’ issues with umpires did not end there. To end the game, Yunel Escobar was called out on strikes and spun into the umpire’s face to argue. He kept up the commentary as he headed to the dugout and even though it was over, home plate umpire Sam Holbrook took a position behind the dirt cutout of home plate and continued to stare at Farrell, Escobar and the Jays’ dugout. Are the Jays becoming targets with a reputation that they’d rather not have among umpires?

“I would certainly hope it isn’t an issue,” Farrell said. “If calls don’t go our way or if they’re questionable we have to maintain our composure and we have to continue to execute when certain things inside the game don’t go in our favour.

“I want our guys to be themselves, go out and play with the passion and the energy that all possess. But, we talked to guys at spring training and reminded them, yes, it’s important to be yourself, but when it starts to take away from our team and team concept then we have to reel it back in.”

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But that was not why the Jays lost. They were soundly thumped by the Rays on this night and the final score flattered the Jays, who were outhit 14-7 and benefitted from two key Rays errors.

Struggling first baseman Carlos Pena had said when he saw the lineup card with his name at leadoff, “I thought it was a joke at first.” But there’s a reason Joe Maddon is AL manager of the year. In Pena’s third at-bat, mired in an 0-for-18 slump, he absolutely crushed a home run that carried 452 feet to centre, ricocheting off the base of the video board high above the field. The three-run blast gave the Rays a six-run lead and they were never truly threatened.

“I didn’t know how far it went,” Pena said. “Every time you drive the ball to centre field, the big part of the field, you know you put a pretty good swing on the ball. It’s pretty gratifying. That’s why we love to hit. We love when we square balls up. It’s always fun.”

It wasn’t much fun for Jays starter Drew Hutchison, a native of nearby Lakeland. In the middle game of the series, the 21-year-old, a graduate of Lakeland High School, suffered his worst defeat in his seventh major-league start, setting up the rubber game on Wednesday afternoon.

In his first six starts, the quiet former 15th-round draft pick in 2009, threw between 87-100 pitches every start and worked between five and six innings. That streak came to an end vs. the Rays, with a brief four-inning outing, with just 86 pitches.

The Rays opened the scoring in the second on an opposite-field leadoff homer by designated hitter Luke Scott over the glove of a leaping Rajai Davis. Scott was in the middle of the action when the Rays opened up the five-run fourth inning, as well. He led off with a double to right, then scored on a one-out double by Drew Sutton. Sutton scored on a fielder’s choice when Lawrie attempted another highlight reel barehand toss to the plate. Then along came Pena and separation.

In the top of the fifth, the Jays scored four runs on a bases-loaded two-run single by Jose Bautista and two errors on a grounder by Edwin Encarnacion, one on a throw by Sutton and a return throw past the catcher by right fielder Ben Zobrist. The error was the first outfield miscue by Zobrist in 270 career games.

After the Rays had built the lead back up to three, Jays first baseman Yan Gomes slammed his second home run in five starts after promotion from Las Vegas. Gomes, the first Brazilian-born player in the major leagues, grew up in Miami and had his parents at the Trop.

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